Apple CEO Tim Cook conducted a private meeting with United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday, April 25, where the discussion was said to be focused "on trade." Following a recent interview with Bloomberg Television, Cook divulged more details about the meeting, mentioning that the two men discussed topics like recently imposed tariffs on China and the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

In late March, Trump launched 25 percent tariffs on around $50 billion worth of Chinese products, citing a "tremendous intellectual property theft problem" in previous U.S./China trade relations. In the new interview, which happened on "The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations," Cook admitted previous trade policies had their drawbacks, but still held that Trump's tariffs are "not the right approach" in this situation.

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Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Executive Tech Summit at Trump Tower in December 2016​

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"It's true, undoubtedly true, that not everyone has been advantaged from that -- in either country -- and we've got to work on that," Cook said. "But I felt that tariffs were not the right approach there, and I showed him some more analytical kinds of things to demonstrate why."

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The two also discussed the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects young immigrants who were brought into the U.S. as children from deportation. The Trump administration's decision to end DACA was blocked in January by a federal judge in San Francisco, and today representatives of the administration will attempt to convince the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it was justified in the move to end the program.

In the days after Trump signed an executive order against DACA early last year, Apple and other major tech companies penned an open letter to Trump urging the importance of the program. Cook discussed his support of DACA throughout the year, and told Rubenstein in this week's interview, "We're only one ruling away from a catastrophic case there."

Other parts of the interview touch upon the new corporate tax policy in the U.S., Apple's growing services segment, Apple Music's new 50 million paid and free trial user milestone, and the company's behind-the-scenes work on original TV content. Head over to Bloomberg to read more details from the interview.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Doesn't matter. All that matters in the White House is that it can say the US waged a trade war against China, and then after a while when they inevitably end it, they can say they won that trade war. Consequences are somebody else's problem.

To be honest, nobody really knows what is good and bad in terms of international politics.

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It also varies depending on the product / industry.

Economics can be considered just another form of warfare between countries (even allies). In the end, tariffs are destructive to both sides but I feel are sometimes needed to modify behavior between trading partners when negotiation fails.

The conversation took a turn when the President handed Tim Cook a thumb drive so he could review recent trade data. Cook fumbled about in his pockets but finally found the dongle. Plugging the thumb drive into his iPad Pro he got the message "the attached device requires too much power". Trump just looked at him and said "sad".

Economics can be considered just another form of warfare between countries (even allies). In the end, tariffs are destructive to both sides but I feel are sometimes needed to modify behavior between trading partners when negotiation fails.

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They're even more destructive when one side levies them, and the other side does not, as someday the bill comes due, and when someone like President Trump comes to collect, other countries aren't ready.

@ RealDonaldTrump
President Xi of China, and I, are working together to give massive Chinese phone company, ZTE, a way to get back into business, fast. Too many jobs in China lost. Commerce Department has been instructed to get it done!
4:01 PM - 13 May 2018

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